Many devices have been made in the past to mark rows for planting or seeding which involve stringing a line between two stakes. All are either inconvenient to use or expensive to manufacture. The simplest of such devices, as for example disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,107,989, involve tying a string to a stake or looping the string around the stake and passing the string through slots in the stake. Although inexpensive, such an arrangement has many disadvantages, not the least of which are the inconvenience of retying the string for each set-up, the requirement of a hammer to drive the stakes into the ground, and the absence of any mechanism to locate the next row.
Many attempts have been made to provide a device which would be easier to use. Most involve a take-up spool or reel affixed to one of the stakes. Different applications and variations in seeding and planting techniques, however, make it advantageous if a row marker provides for adjusting the height of the line above the ground, making devices in which no adjustment is provided like those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,555,457, and in U.S. Design Pat. No. 153,495 of limited value. In a marker like that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,897, a wire spring clip is added to each stake. The line is tied to one and loops the other, finally being fed to a spool disposed vertically at the end of one of the stakes. Readjustment of the line by rotating the stake which spools the line is required after each height adjustment.
The present invention provides a seeding or planting row marker which permits adjustment of the height of the line, yet which eliminates the inconvenience of having an adjustable spring clip separate from the reel by making the reel directly adjustable in height by hand, and which further provides a mechanism for locating the next row.